Posted on 01/23/2006 3:59:50 AM PST by Tom D.
Why I Don’t Take Feminists Seriously
Jan 23, 2006
by Mike S. Adams
Dear Daisy:
First of all, let me tell you how thrilled I am to receive hate mail from a feminist named “Daisy.” I can’t think of many names – with the possible exceptions of Coco, Mercedes, and Jasmine – that could make you sound less like a feminist and more like a stripper in a club that offers two-dollar table dances. Nonetheless, I will try to answer most of your questions, sent via e-mail.
In your opening paragraph, you asked me, a) whether my wife hates me as much as every other woman in America hates me, b) whether I am against women voting, c) whether I am against women holding elective office, d) whether I think rape should be legalized, e) whether I think women should be banned from the workplace, f) whether I think all women should be barefoot and pregnant, and, finally, g) whether I support female genital mutilation.
The answers to those seven profoundly rational questions are as follows: No; No; No; No; No; No; and No.
Unfortunately, your final question, which consumed most of paragraph two of your e-mail, will take a bit longer to address. But that’s okay. The question “Why don’t you take feminists seriously” is an important one. It deserves a more complete response. So here are my primary reasons:
1. I do not consider 21st century feminism to be a political ideology or philosophy.
American feminists generally do not become feminists because of some well-defined political goal. For example, in your email you enumerate several important political objectives. You want to vote. You want to be free to hold elective office. You want rape to be illegal. You want to be able to work. You don’t want to be forced to get and stay pregnant at all times. You want genital mutilation (of females) to be illegal.
I have an important newsflash, Daisy: You have already achieved all six of these political objectives. But, nonetheless, you continue to rant. And you continue to live in the past. That makes it difficult to take you seriously.
2. Generally speaking, feminists get together with other feminists because it is less expensive than seeing a therapist.
Feminists are usually drawn together by an inability to deal with men. When they get together, whether in a small group or a large one, criticism of males tends to dominate the discourse.
Let me give you an example. A few days after I made an appearance on The O’Reilly Factor – to talk about race and class, not gender – two feminists gathered outside my office to criticize some pro-life bumper stickers that were posted on my door. One feminist stated that it must be difficult to have to come to work every day on the same floor with such a sexist professor. The other said they should keep their voices low because I might overhear them. Since I was actually in my office at the time (with the door shut) I did overhear them.
Despite the fact that the conversation began with one feminist trying to sooth another, they soon worked themselves into a frenzy. The mere repetition of words such as “patriarchal,” phallocentric,” and “male-dominated” has an effect like the one described in George Orwell’s 1984. If you want to see the “two minutes hate” in practice just attend an annual “Take Back the Night” march or The Vagina Monologues.
Regardless of whether it is a gathering of two, two hundred, or two thousand feminists, the dynamics are always the same. And those dynamics make it hard to take feminism seriously.
3. Most feminists don’t really want equality.
One good example of this phenomenon comes from a recent argument I had with one of the stars of The Vagina Monologues. She wrote me to complain about a column I published criticizing that infamous feminist play. She told me she was “offended” and “hurt” by my critique. I then asked her whether the flashing “vagina” sign in front of the school was offensive to the Greek Orthodox or Baptist churches located nearby. She responded by saying that she “didn’t give a sh*t” what they thought. It mattered very much that she was offended. It didn’t matter at all that she had offended others. (Take a moment to look up the word “sociopath” in the dictionary).
Another example comes from a former secretary in my department. One day she left work crying because I criticized campus feminists (for hanging racist posters on campus showing Condi Rice standing in a cage holding a bunch of bananas). The next week she was back in the office tearlessly (and tirelessly) criticizing her husband for his inability to maintain an erection.
Increasingly, these campus feminists strive to be a) constantly offended, and b) constantly offensive. One unanticipated consequence of the feminists’ unequal application of the “right to be un-offended” is that many people now deem feminists to be emotionally inferior.
That is another reason why people (myself included) don’t take feminists seriously.
4. The feminist love of postmodernism has resulted in widespread academic and personal dishonesty.
A few years ago, I began to realize that one can seldom trust a feminist to tell the truth. For example, I once asked a feminist to debate me on the issue of abortion. She told me she really wasn’t pro-choice. I did an internet search and found that she had repeatedly referred to herself as “pro-choice” on feminist list serves. She made those references to herself both before and after our conversation. In other words, she lied.
When I asked another feminist to debate me on abortion she said that she didn’t discuss such personal topics publicly. But then I read her biography. After talking about losing her virginity (including details about how she cleaned the blood off the couch afterwards) she dedicated countless pages to the issue of abortion and how a “lack of choice” adversely affects young women. After reading on, I realized why she didn’t tell me the truth. She revealed that she was a postmodernist who didn’t like to use the word “truth.”
The next time I got into an argument with a feminist – over whether a female student who lied about a rape to get out of a test should be expelled – I understood the postmodern feminist position better. Feminists just can’t help but lie because there really is no such thing as the truth.
Since so many feminists cannot tell the truth - because it doesn’t even really exist - I simply cannot take them seriously.
Those are just a few reasons, Daisy. I eagerly await your response, so I can treat my readers to part two of the series. After all, these may be the best tips you get all year.
Mike Adams is a criminology professor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington and is a regular columnist for Townhall.com.
Copyright © 2006 Mike S. Adams
Yeah, but they *call* it something different, so it's okay ;^>
Can anyone explain this connection between postmodernism, and lying?
Bravo, Mike. BRAVO!!!
This leads one to the conclusion that feminists seek not equal treatment but special treatment.
Until I hear them address this issue I cannot take any of their arguments seriously.
Bump
"Postmedernism" is the justification people use for "lying".
And they act like they can't understand why you don't take them seriously.
Poor slob just does not have enough focus or imagination to get past her carping (she probably does it in bed). NO wonder more guys are staying single nowadays.
Excellent article.
ping
Bump
Thanks for clearing that up for me.
In a related field: What color was George Washington's white horse ;^>
Hmmm. IMHO, the first part of your statement is still a very open question.
Now, if you had prefaced the sentence with the words "so far", I would be in complete agreement!
This formula is certainly not restricted to feminists, though I'll grant you they seem to be the only group with the hubris to imagine they have a legitimate objection to, and alternative for, reason and logic.
"Feminism--psychotherapy without a couch (sometimes)."
Draft?...What draft?
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